Procedure and Instrument Terms

Procedural Terms

• Biopsy: Excision of living tissue for examination.
• Cautery: Destruction of tissue using electricity, freezing, or chemicals; aids hemostasis.
• Debridement: Removal of dead or foreign tissue from a wound.

Disease Terms

• Dermabrasion: Scraping of skin surface layers to remove scars or wrinkles. (skin/away/scrape/process)
• Dermatome: Instrument for cutting thin skin sections for grafts. (skin/cut/instrument)
• Electrodesiccation: Destruction and drying of cells/tissues with high-frequency electric sparks. (electric/dry\ up\ Lt./process)
• Escharotomy: Removal of tissue and underlying tissue caused by burns, to relieve blood flow restriction. (scab/removal/process)
• Fulguration: Type of electrodessication that destroys tissue with long, high-frequency electric sparks. (to\ lighten/process\ Lt.)
• Grafts: Tissue taken from one area to replace skin elsewhere; autograft (self), heterograft (another person). Includes pig skin and synthetic replacements.

Instruments (-SCOP/E)

• General definition: instrument used to examine or view.
• Stethoscope: Instrument used to examine the chest. (chest/examining/procedure\ of)
• Otoscope: Instrument used to examine the ear. (ear/examine/instrument)
• Sigmoidoscope: Instrument used to view the sigmoid colon.

Procedures (-SCOP/Y)

• General definition: the process or procedure of visual inspection.
• Cardioscopy: Examination of the interior of the heart.
• Colonoscopy: Examination of the upper part of the colon.
• Cystoscopy: Examination of the bladder.
• Proctoscopy: Examination of the anus and rectum.

Instruments/Machines (-GRAPH)

• General definition: instrument or machine that records or writes.
• Electroencephalograph: Instrument to record electrical activity of the brain.
• Electromyograph: Instrument to record skeletal muscle contraction.
• Electrocardiograph: Instrument to record electrical activity of the heart. (electric/heart/writing/machine)
• Radiograph: A picture produced by a machine on a film by X-rays or gamma rays.
• Thermograph: Device/machine that records heat patterns on the skin.
• Sonograph: Machine that emits ultrasonic waves to measure tissue density.

Procedures (-GRAPH/Y)

• General definition: Procedure of using machine, instrument, or device to record.
• Electromyography: Recording of skeletal muscle contractions.
• Mammography: Surface X-ray picture of the breast tissue.
• Myelography: Recording of spinal cord after injection of opaque medium dye.
• Radiography: X-ray.
• Thermography: The process of recording surface heat patterns.
• Tomography: Process cutting across and producing single layer tissue images.

Records (-GRAM)

• General definition: This is the record, recording, or writing.
• Angiogram: X-ray record of blood vessels using radiopaque contrast dye.
• Cardiogram: Heart recording (heart/recording)
• Myelogram: X-ray record of spinal cord using radiopaque contrast dye.
• Photofluorogram: X-ray image record from a fluoroscopic exam.
• Sonogram: Record produced from results of ultrasonography.